Gurley’s great, of course, but what’s really worth a close look is what Kenarious Gates did on the play. If you watch carefully, he creates the lane Gurley chugs through, throwing a block to his right and then turning around and picking off a defensive back to his other side. It’s perfectly timed. (You can see a bird’s-eye view of the play at about the 2:03 mark here.)

Gates is one of those guys who’s not going to surprise me if he turns out to have a decent pro career as an offensive guard. It’s too bad for Gates that the Dawgs never really had a true left tackle, because he really would have shined as a full-time guard in college.

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16 responses to “I got nothing.”

Senator, I think you are right about Gates as a guard. He was out of his element at left tackle, but he was always good when he moved down inside. Another of those weekend before signing day offers where people wanted to know why we offered him.

In a nutshell that is what has been wrong with the UGA O-line all along–guards playing tackle. It is like having only shooting guards on a basketball team and asking one of them to be the point guard. It ain’t the same position.

Gates reminds me of Boling in that respect. Though I would call Boling a better tackle than Gates at the collegiate level, he was still best when he was at Guard. I have vivid memories of him out in space, pulling. He was like the guided photon torpedo at the end of Star Trek VI: powerful and inevitable. He destroyed people.

Ugh…It probably kicked in at some point during the Missouri game, but that performance by Vad Lee just really solidified my complete indifference to whether Todd Grantham ever coached another game in Athens or not. Like the Senator, it’s not really my style to call for coach’s heads, but I had zero emotional investment in his continued employment in Athens after allowing a damned triple option QB shred his defense in the air.

At the end of that clip that you linked (with the full highlights), I still get worried when that ball pops up in the air. I feel like it hung up there for forever, and I know every UGA fan in the world thought, “Not like this. Not again.” Luckily, the good guys won this time.

MOTIVATION. Motivating the DB’s always seems to be at issue for Georgia.
In a game that was mostly a defensive struggle, the Lanier Poets of Macon were ahead of the Warner Robins Demons 7-zip at half time. Stan Gann, ex Georgia Tech qb and High School DB coach was busy coaching us up when Frank Orgel, the D line coach and assistant HC walked up and began to chew us out.“If y’all don’t stop all that !!#%X titty bumping and start tackling like you wanna hurt somebody I’m run you till the ambulance comes for you Saturday morning. You hear me?!!!
When he was through, Coach Gann calmly walked over to him and looked up. He was as close as one man can stand to another…in those days. Gann was all of 5’8. Coach Orgel was 6’3″. He had to crane his neck to get a good look. Orgel was at one time a DE for Auburn and it was rumored at the time, the Buffalo Bills.
Gann: If your done here Coach I’ll go back to what we were trying to get done. We’ll stop the “titty bumping”. It would help if your D line didn’t give that quarterback all day to throw the ball. OK Coach.?”
Now I don’t know if coaches plan that stuff or not. But it worked. It was money. Lanier didn’t catch a pass in the second half or score again. But the Demons lost. 7-6.
True to his word Orgel ran us till we fed the birds Saturday morning.
After that night we didn’t play for Warner Robins HS anymore. We didn’t play for Coach Orgel. Or his Warner Robins Demons.
We played for Stan “the man” Gann.
We went 9-1.

Gates would have been better at guard, no question. He has a chance to play in the NFL if he steps up his game. He would have been great if he had ever gotten himself in top shape.

Of course, he is just like the rest of the group. I suspect nutrition is a part of it, that we don’t eat right, especially during the season. But there’s more to it than that, as we’ve talked about before.
~~~

Bloviation for the Dawgnation

Quote Of The Day

“It brings back a great Bulldog running back in Thomas who has NFL playing experience and has had success as a college coach at multiple schools. He also inherits a position that has been built to an elite level by Bryan. And it gives Bryan the opportunity to return to coaching the position he played and the one where he cut his teeth serving as a graduate assistant under wide receiver coach John Eason here at UGA. It also provides him with a new experience as a passing game coordinator.” -- Mark Richt, AB-H, 2/16/15